InterestsMy main research concerns the naturalization of metaphysics — that is, the process of making metaphysics accountable to science. I say both what that involves and why we should do it.
In the negative part of the project, I identify a class of theories I call free range metaphysics — metaphysics constrained by demands for consistency, simplicity, intuitive plausibility, and explanatory power, and only nominally by science — and spell out its epistemic failures (see my article "Keep the Chickens Cooped"). The positive part of the project articulates my conception of scientifically responsible metaphysics — metaphysics that conscientiously and painstakingly engages with the data, theories, theoretical interpretations, and practices of science. There, I detail and give examples of appropriate modes of engagement, and I show why such metaphysics is epistemically better off than the free range alternative. I also have published papers on the prospects for naturalizing theories of ground (see my "Naturalizing Grounding") and on Quine's apparent inconsistency regarding the rational revisability of logic ("Resolving Quine's Conflict"). Finally, I have ongoing projects pertaining to the possibility of accommodating causation in an eliminative ontic structural realist framework, as well as the base-rate fallaciousness of the no-miracles argument. For a more detailed statement of my research, click here. |
Publications"Naturalizing Grounding: How Theories of Ground Can Engage Science" (2018). Philosophy Compass.
"Keep the Chickens Cooped: The Epistemic Inadequacy of Free Range Metaphysics" (2017). Synthese. 1-21.
“Resolving Quine’s Conflict: A Neo-Quinean View of the Rational Revisability of Logic” (2017). Australasian Journal of Logic (14:1). 30-45.
Other Contributions“Each Kuhn Mutually Incommensurable” (2018). Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 7, no. 6: 1-7. <https://wp.me/p1Bfg0-3XM>
"What's Metaphysics All About?" (2017). The Institute of Art and Ideas. <iainews.iai.tv/articles/what-is-metaphysics-all-about-auid-870?access=ALL> |
